Orders, Decorations and Medals

The important K.B.E., C.B. group awarded to Lieutenant-General Sir Ragnar Garrett, Chief of the General Staff, Australian Military Forces, who laid down the initial conditions, and drafted the terms, of the formal surrender of the Japanese Military and Naval Forces in Bougainville

The Order of the British Empire, K.B.E. (Military) 2nd type neck badge and breast star, in case of issue; The Order of the Bath, C.B. (Military) neck badge, silver-gilt and enamels, in case of issue; 1939-45 Star; Africa Star; Pacific Star; Defence & War Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaf; Australian Service Medal, these last six all officially impressed (NX346 A. R. Garrett); Coronation 1953, the last seven mounted as worn, together with companion mounted group of nine miniature medals, the full-size mounted medals nearly very fine, otherwise extremely fine (19) £4000-5000

K.B.E. (Military) London Gazette 1 January 1959: ‘Lieutenant-General Garrett was appointed Chief of the General Staff in March 1958. He has had a distinguished career of nearly forty years in the Australian Army in peace and war and has given outstanding service and leadership in many important posts. In recognition of his service to the Australian Army and the Commonwealth.’

C.B. (Military) London Gazette 13 June 1957: ‘Lieutenant-General Garrett has given over 36 years of distinguished service to Australia and the Army, both in peace and war. During the 1939-45 War he served overseas in the United Kingdom, The Middle East, and subsequently with distinction in operations in New Guinea...’

C.B.E. (Military) London Gazette 19 July 1945.

M.I.D. London Gazette 6 March 1947.

On Saturday 18 August 1945, as 3 Australian Division in Bougainville faced the prospect of another bloody engagement with General Kanda’s 17th Japanese Army, a small party of Japs unexpectedly appeared at an isolated spot on the far bank of the Mivo River. One carried a Rising Sun flag on a long pole. Their leader, a youthful and immaculately dressed American-born Major, was then ceremoniously lifted and carried across the waist-deep river. On the near side, the enemy officer ‘stood stiffly to attention and bowed elaborately’ to an astonished Australian officer of equal rank who blindfolded him and arranged passage to divisional heaquarters. ‘A convoy of five jeeps then bumped its way over twenty miles of corduroy and muddy road - past the Peperu bridge which Japanese infiltration parties had tried to destroy two nights before, past Slater’s knoll with its story-telling placards, “125 Japanese Buried Here.” ’ At 3rd Division H.Q. the Japanese major was firmly received by Brigadier A. R. Garrett, ‘of Canterbury, Melbourne’, who two weeks later bore witness to the formal surrender ceremony of Japanese forces in Bougainville in the battleroom at II Australian Corps headquarters. At the time of that first approach, however, Brigadier Garrett was to make an alarming discovery, which he subsequently recorded: ‘Prior to the formal surrender I met Gen. Kanda’s representative on the bank of the Mivo river. This was our first contact with the Japanese on an official basis. Kanda’s representative was Count? I questioned him closely as to the strength and disposition of the Japanese forces. Their strength was twice what our intelligence had estimated and at least four times greater than McArthur’s intelligence stated. We had planned on an attack across the Mivo River. Fortunately for us the call by the Emperor of Japan came a couple of days before that attack was to have been launched. We would have got a very rude shock. Gen. Kanda complied strictly with the terms of surrender.’

Lieutenant-General Sir Alwyn Ragnar Garrett, K.B.E., C.B., was born on 12 February 1900, and was educated at Guildford Grammar School and the R.M.C., Duntroon. Commissioned in 1921, he served with the British Army in India on attachment to the Queen’s Bays. From 1923 to 1937 he served with the Australian Military Forces, attending, in 1938-1939, the Staff College, Camberley. During the Second World War he commanded the 2/31st Battalion, A.I.F., and sometime served in the U.K. and with the 1st Armoured Division. Following A.I.F. service in Greece and the Middle East, he went to the South West Pacific area in 1943 where he ultimately became Chief of Staff to Lieutenant General S. G. Savige’s II Corps Headquarters in Bougainville. On 18 September 1945 following he was the first Australian who interviewed the Japanese officer at 3rd Australian Division’s H.Q.

In 1946 he returned home to become Commandant of the Australian Staff College until 1949, although tenure of the appointment was interrupted for some months when he filled the post of Principal Administrative Officer and Commandant, Australian Component, B.C.O.F. in Japan. He was successively G.O.C. Western Command, 1951-52; D.C.G.S., Australia, 1953; Adjutant-General, 1954; and G.O.C. Southern Command, 1954 to his appointment as Chief of

the General Staff in November 1957. Following his retirement from the Army in 1960 he headed the Australian Administrative Staff College at Mount Eliza, Victoria, for four years, before returning to his home state to become Chairman of the Western Australia Coastal Shipping Commission. During this latter period his strong views on nuclear weapons and deployment of Australian troops in Vietnam appeared in the newspapers. Finally retiring in 1970, General Garrett settled at Mount Eliza where he died in 1977, his burial being marked by a 15-gun salute.

This lot is sold with an important collection of archive material relating to General Garrett and the Surrender of Japanese Forces on Bougainville, and includes: Official Warrants for the C.B.E. (19 July 1945) and K.B.E. (1 January 1959) together with a copy of the Statutes of the Order and various Central Chancery enclosures; Official typscript ‘Governor-General. Commonwealth of Australia’ citations for the C.B. and K.B.E.; Mention in Despatches Certificate dated 6th March 1947; Graduation Certificate No. 274, Royal Military College, Duntroon, 14 December 1921; Officer’s Commission, Military Forces of the Defence Force of the Commonwealth, 15 December 1921; ‘Terms of Surrender of the Japanese Forces in Bougainville’, effective 8 September 1945, four pages of stiff foolscap, one and a half being typescript, signed ‘in the field’ in Japanese characters by General Kanda, commanding 17th Japanese Army, and by Vice-Admiral Samejima, commanding Japanese Naval Forces, ribbon bound and containined in card cover annotated at a later date by General Garrett; Buff envelope addressed in Japanese characters to: ‘2 Corps Chief of Staff Brig. Garrett - Aust Army’, and on the reverse in Japanese characters ‘Chief of Staff 17 Army Maj-Gen Magata’ and ‘Chief of Staff Eighth Fleet Rear Admiral Yamazumi’; Appendent Chart showing positions of hydrophones, contact mines, and submarine cables in the vicinity of the Shortland and Faule Islands off Bougainvillle; Typescript copy, 2 pages, ‘Outline Appreciation of the Situation by G.O.C. 2 Aust Corps 25 January 45’, 4 pages typescript, with the annotation by General Garrett at later date, ‘Upon receipt of this I wrote an appreciation which I handed to Lt Gen Savige. He was very angry because it conflicted with practically everything he had said ...’; ‘The Surrender of General Kanda’ by Brigadier John Field, D.S.O., E.D., ‘Memories of battle fought in almost continual rain, the problems of the jungle fighting in New Guinea and the Solomons, the mud, sweat and discomfort of the tropics and the good Australians who had fought and toiled and died to pave the way to victory. Hard thoughts too, of Japanese ruthlessness and their exemplification of “total war” in the treatment of some of our men unlucky enough to fall into their hands and suffer before they died. Of the thoughts of those days, that henceforth the prosecution of the war could never be total enough on our part, and of the just deserts of Japanese brutality, arrogance and treachery. Yes, it was good to be here today and to have some part to play in this piece of history ...’, 4 page typescript copy account, signed ‘John Field’ and dated ‘Torokina, Bouganville, North Solomons, 8 Sep 45.’; 2 page transcript of letter to Brigadier Garrett from Maj-Gen. Magata, ‘Chief of Staff 17 Jap Army’, on the subject of swords, ‘As you may already understand, Nipponto are cherished by our officers as the swords of the Samurai, and Japanese swords are to protect the right and we do not expect that they will be used as murderous weapons...’; and a large quantity of photographs and news cuttings detailing his military career.